Core77's Design Directory

Good news: Jonathan Ive, who was famously promoted to Chief Design Officer of Apple two years ago, is officially overseeing the design teams again. As CDO Ive's attention was spread onto the design of Apple's "spaceship" campus, with Alan Dye and Richard Howarth taking over the hardware and software design

The WGSN Futures conference demonstrated both what designers can learn from marketers and important skills they already have

Last week's WGSN Futures conference, an event founded by the trend research agency, focused on the future of retail, branding and marketing in a time now dubbed the "Retail Apocalypse." With thousands of brick and mortar stores shutting down last year, it's clear traditional retail needs a bit of rebranding

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Kickstarter has been all about inventive products and the stories behind them since day one. By now, we all know the basics of how the crowdfunding platform works—designer thinks of groundbreaking idea but needs funding, designer creates Kickstarter campaign to raise awareness and funding, designer either earns enough funding or

Originally the Getaway bag, the Pakt One is back by popular demand and available through an Indiegogo campaign

The much anticipated Pakt One travel bag's story is one of trial and error and successful multi-layer collaboration. Launched this morning on Indiegogo, the bag's story is filled with interesting advice for designers thinking about putting a professional crowdfunding campaign together—for a market overcrowded with product and made up of

Graphic designer Allyn Hughes discusses how brands are using the current political climate to their advantage

In January, around the time of the Women's March on Washington, my pilates studio wrote an Audre Lorde quote on the chalkboard near the door: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." At first it made me feel a kinship with the studio, because I like the quote and I admire Audre Lorde.

A compact digest of insight into the state of the design profession and creative recruiting in 2017.

For over 15 years Core77 and Coroflot – the design recruiting site – have polled working designers across the professional spectrum about their careers. The result is two-fold; first, an ever growing "real-time" design salary guide at Coroflot.com, where

Rule #1? Stay hydrated

Carly Ayres is a member of the Core77 family and a freelancer near and dear to our hearts—a self-described "specialized generalist" who's created work for clients like Google Creative Lab and Wallpaper* as well as being a regular contributor to Core77 with the beloved In the Details column. Given the 1-Hour Design Challenge prompt to design objects for freelancers, we thought Carly would be a great judge and could bring some significant insight into products that independent workers might actual

Making the shift from "I like the color" to creating globally-appealing products

In designing Firefly newborn phototherapy, Design that Matters used human-centered design to transform Vietnamese manufacturing partner, Medical Technology Transfer and Services (MTTS), expanding their impact on newborn health within Southeast Asia and Africa, and positioning their designs to go global. Through multiple meetings with our manufacturing partner in the U.S.

Also, which jobs have had their gender ratios flipped in the past 60 years?

Picture, in your mind, a homicide detective. Now picture a kindergarten teacher. I'm guessing you imagined the first person as male, and the second as female. Based on direct experience or what we've seen on TV, we all have certain stereotypes about which genders work in which occupations. But what

The free conference will be held in LA on September 13

As designers, we think and act in ways that vary greatly from scientists, engineers and even other types of designers we typically don't encounter in our day-to-day lives. But what would happen if we bridged the communication gap between students and professionals working at the intersection of design and technology?

Logo placement put into consumer hands

Tired of seeing the Nike swoosh in the same place, over and over? Tired of seeing logos on sneakers in general? Nike's now giving you the option to place your own or opt-out entirely with their recently released Gakou Flyknit. In all honesty, the design of the sneaker itself isn't all that revolutionary—by this point, we've all grown accustomed to sock-like shoes being worn everywhere from the gym to the office.

At Design Miami, we had the opportunity to sit down with Alessi's President Alessio Alessi and his son Giovanni Alessi Anghini, an industrial designer. Traveling with their family, they were on the last stop of a U.S. trip to celebrate the opening of a new retail space for Alessi in the Miami Design District. Giovanni is one of four children and the first of the fourth generation to start working for the family business.

At this summer's 99U conference, Pentagram partner and designer Natasha Jen gave a presentation with an eye-catching title: "Design Thinking is Bullshit." This was actually the second time she'd given the talk--back in May Jen tweeted "Finally let it out of my system" after presenting it at HOWlive in Chicago--but

CNC finally comes to a sector that it previously couldn't

This is one of those things that's technologically impressive and socially terrifying. CNC technology has spread into most areas of manufacture. One large component with CNC operations is "hold-down," or affixing the material firmly in place so that the business end of the tool can work it precisely. Hold-down has

For low-resource settings, you need to go above and beyond

Does United States FDA regulatory approval mean a medical device is safe and effective in low resource settings? The short answer is no. In developing countries, 95% of western medical equipment is broken within 5 years. In fact,only 30% of this donated equipment is ever even turned on. To enable

This gas/electric hybrid may be the first vehicle of its kind to go into production.

The idea of cars that can fly has been around since at least 1940 when Henry Ford said flying cars were on the way. What he didn't know was that it would take until now for one to get beyond the prototype stage and go into production. AeroMobil 4.0If

Design for everyone is design for no one

At the beginning of each new project, Design that Matters creates a point of view statement to focus the project on the need, users, and contexts will be included AND excluded from our design. During Project Firefly, we focused on treating otherwise healthy newborns with jaundice using a phototherapy device

Every product starts as an aspirational vision for how the finished result should look, feel, and function in the consumer's hands. However, the design process to transform ideas into mass manufacturable products is a road paved by technical reality and practical compromise. Mitigating risk before investing in mass manufacturing is

Paul Gaudio reveals the interesting business model, but the short answer is we'll have to wait and see for ourselves

adidas just officially announced their Greenpoint, Brooklyn Creator Farm, an open source hub for well, creativity. Boasting a start-up environment within the not-so-startup company, the adidas Creator Farm seems like a secure place to work for a small team without the major risk of going under. Our burning question

Or maybe why you should. Here are some things you need to know to protect what you design or create.

People design because they are creative, not because they are experts in patent law. Still, to prevent your ideas from being ripped off it's necessary to know something about patents, copyright, and trademarks. In the video below, John Sanders of Sanders Machine Works discusses intellectual property (IP) law with

It's quite possible Chelsea Vandiver is one of the most knowledgeable people we could ask about what it takes to get a gig at Portland-based Ziba. An employee at the design agency for almost 20 years, Vandiver has worked her way up to the very top and been the Executive

Are freelance design jobs safe?

In this day and age, I value bodies that can take a lot of information and present it in a comprehensible way. The folks over at Kurzgesagt (German for "in a nutshell") spent 900 hours and nine months researching the history of automation, then created this video explaining why recent

Design beef even tastier than their meatballs

I enjoy IKEA hacking as much as the next guy, but Balenciaga's $2.1k "homage" to the classic blue bag felt a bit hackneyed. While the accessible furniture and home goods company has stated publicly that the high fashion rip off is "flattering" this new ad might suggest otherwise. It's

Finally, a design approach you can't afford to ignore.

When was the last time you choose the harder, more expensive approach to solve a problem? That is the reason why the adoption of the Design Sprint practice has been skyrocketing worldwide. But before backing up that claim, let me set the stage with some foundation for the reader that is unfamiliar with the term Design Sprint

The CEO/Owner of Staple Pigeon, Staple Design & Reed Space discusses the design industry from a business perspective in this two-part interview

It's clear nobody knows better than jeffstaple what it means to be a designer and businessman at the same damn time. So, I was curious to speak with him about what that exactly means, in terms of managing responsibilities, transitioning between roles, rebranding and designing for a niche-turned-mass market. Let's get right down to it, because there's a lot to cover.

The CEO/Owner of Staple Pigeon, Staple Design & Reed Space discusses the design industry from a business perspective in this two-part interview

Through seamlessly blending business and design, Jeff Ng, also known as jeffstaple, turned his graphic design passion into the three-part visual communication agency, Staple Design. Including the agency itself, the t-shirt printing stint turned successful menswear collection, Staple Pigeon and the beloved Lower East Side retail store, Reed Space (whose

VR is the future, and with the LucidCam, the future is here

The Lucid VR team created an easy-to-use stereoscopic 3D 180° camera for the consumer market. Model Solution’s design and manufacturing teams took the original design and specified LEDs, switches, materials, finishes and more to keep costs down and still meet the application’s demanding requirements. Model Solution built three initial mock-ups and initial full appearance models in less than 12 days. These models featured functional LEDs and switches, allowing Lucid VR engineers to see and feel h

Q&A with Design Field Researcher, Jan Chipchase, on the launch of his new book

There are few people in the design world more familiar with field research, and the extensive travel that goes with it, than Jan Chipchase. On May 6th, Jan launched what has turned out to be a very successful Kickstarter campaign to publish his most recent book, The Field Study Handbook.

Short answer: A version of what you wear in the shop

I'm not interested in clothing. You might be wondering why I sell any. Well, for my business I hand-pick items that solve specific problems for designer/builders. Because of the nature of business, this sometimes has to expand beyond tools for them to wield and books to educate them. Here's what

Chris Do's smart business tips are so good, we can't believe he's giving them away for free

Chris Do, founder and CEO of brand strategy consultancy Blind, is both a brilliant art director and a brilliant businessman. In this talk he holds nothing back, revealing his time-tested techniques for increasing your value to companies as a designer. (It is targeted towards graphic designers but the industrial designers

Think of yourself as a supplier

If you're not ready to be a full-blown designer/builder, there is a way you can ease yourself into the marketplace. Lately I've noticed a bunch of people are fabricating items to sell on Etsy that are not finished products, but complementary components. Some examples: Slovenia-based LeatherEU sells these handsome

See if your project fits the bill

Kickstarter is arguably the most well-known crowdfunding platform out there. At any given time, you can pledge to support virtually any project you could imagine, from magazines on the future of food to sand-cast metal bowls to desktop digital fabrication tools. The wide range of projects the platform attracts is